Fewer than 1,000 women in senior positions in police force: India Justice Report 2025

More women are joining the police force and the judiciary in India yet the majority are only found in the lower echelons of these institutions, it seems.

According to the 2025 India Justice Report 2025 released on Tuesday (April 15), there are fewer than 1,000 women in senior positions among the 20.3 lakh personnel in the police force.

According to the report, just 12 per cent of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers are women.

The report also found that while 38 per cent of the judges in the lower judiciary were women, this crashed to 14 per cent in high courts.

90 per cent constables

In India's police force, 24,322 police women hold non-IPS officer positions such as deputy superintendent, inspector, or sub-inspector.

Out of these, 52 per cent are at the level of sub-inspectors, and 25 per cent are ASIs. However, women are largely found at the constabulary level as they constitute 13 per cent of the total strength.

A staggering 2.17 lakh women or 90 per cent of all the women in the police force serve in the constabulary.

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According to experts, this is due to a deeply ingrained perception that policing is a "masculine profession, associated with physical strength and long, unpredictable hours", making it appear unsuitable or unsafe for women, said a news report.

India Justice Report 2025

The report, initiated by Tata Trusts and supported by civil society organisations and data partners, tracked the performance of the states vis-à-vis the police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid.

According to the report, which is the country's only ranking of states on the delivery of justice, not a single state or Union Territory has met its target for women's representation in the police force.

The report says that as of January 2023, the overall representation of women in the police -- the civil police, District Armed Reserve, Special Armed Police Battalion and Indian Reserve Battalion -- stood at 12.3 per cent, up from 11.7 per cent in January 2022.

State of judiciary

The report exposed serious infrastructural and staffing deficiencies in the judiciary as well.

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India has just 15 judges per million people, far below the Law Commission's 1987 recommendation of 50.

High Courts run with 33 per cent and district courts with 21 per cent vacancies, leading to huge workloads — up to 15,000 cases per judge in high courts like Allahabad and Madhya Pradesh.

Women in judiciary

Like in the police, women are badly under-represented in the judiciary too.

The report found that while 38 per cent of the judges in the lower judiciary were women, this crashed to 14 per cent in high courts. “The glass ceiling remains firmly in place,” the report stated.

According to the report, while the share of women in the subordinate judiciary has steadily increased in all states, it has not followed the same trajectory in the high courts.

Not a single woman judge in Uttarakhand

By February 2025, 27 states and Union Territories had met or exceeded the 33 per cent mark of women judges in district courts, and seven states had 50 per cent or more women in lower courts.

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In contrast, Uttarakhand did not have a single woman judge in its high court. The share of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes in the district judiciary remains low at 5 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.

TN tops in prison management

Tamil Nadu retained its top position in managing prisons, with increased budget allocation and 100 per cent utilisation. The state has among the lowerst staff vacancies in prisons nationwide, it stated. It added that with 22 inmates per officer, it has the best officer workload among all large states.

But the state's rank in policing fell from 3 in 2024 to 13, owing to poor performance on budgetary and training indicators.

Karnataka was the top-performing state among the 18 large and mid-sized states in terms of justice delivery. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu followed Karnataka. The five southern states outperformed others due to better diversity, infrastructure and staffing across sectors, the report said.

Prisons and prisoners

Prison overcrowding is another area of concern, with a national average occupancy rate of 131 per cent.

Uttar Pradesh has some of the worst instances — one in every three jails in the sprawling state holds over 250 per cent of its capacity.

The prisoner-doctor ratio in prisons was 775:1 against the recommended 300:1. In many large states, including Haryana, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, this ratio exceeded 1,000:1.

With India's prison population projected to hit 6.8 lakh by 2030, the report warned that the justice system will continue to disproportionately burden the vulnerable unless systemic reforms were prioritised.